It's Been A Long Long Time
by VerelLupin
Summary: He's been waiting for her to wake up. She's been waiting for him to get a clue. Both have been waiting a long long time. Coulskye


**This is a more romantic aftermath of T.R.A.C.K.S. **

**This is the one I was trying to write but it wasn't cooperating. I dream that they'll do something adorable like this on the show. (wishful thinking)**

**The song is "It's been a long, long time." by Harry James & Helen Forrest.**

**Enjoy...**

* * *

**'Thin pleasant lips against her hair, strong arms holding her up and the clean scent of a well pressed suit?'**

Skye sat up quickly and regretted the action instantaneously. She looked around the dark room but even with the little light coming from beneath her door, she knew it wasn't where she and Mike had been held.

She got herself up and immediately pressed a hand to her stomach careful of her injury. But to her surprise she found no hole or blood or anything else resembling two gunshots wounds from that bastard Quinn.

She felt the familiar carpeting and knew exactly where she was. **'I'm on the Bus, how did we get back here so fast? Had they gotten Quinn after all?'**

She turned on the light and examined her torso anew. **'Nope nothing that a few crunches couldn't fix,' **she thought ruefully**. 'But no sucking, life threatening, wound either.'** Puzzled she put down her shirt and walked barefoot out of her room and to the stairs that would lead to the answers she needed, if they weren't classified.

"Hey guys?" her voice echoed around the room and she noticed the silence for the first time since she'd woken.

**'Well there was some sound,'** she thought warily glancing up the stairs. It sounded like a very old song, a song she'd heard before. Not sure how since it definitely didn't fit with anything she normally listened to, **'must be Coulson.'**

_Kiss me once then kiss me twice_

The song was quiet but loud enough to waft down to her and oddly it made the earlier tension melt away the longer she listened.** 'Coulson would never leave me alone on the Bus, he must be up there working.'**

_Then kiss me once again_

The door at the top of the stairs was closed and she hesitated at it, though she wasn't sure why. She stood right in front of it and for the first time since joining the group, she felt outside the loop, felt disconnected from her team, her family.

_It's been a long, long time…_

"Come in," he said loud enough to be heard over the music and through the door.

_Haven't felt like this, my dear_

She slid it open and stood at the threshold, waiting for what she didn't know. Something told Skye that he needed to be the one who let her in this time. "Are you feeling better?" he asked rising from his desk.

"Yeah, a little sore from the..." she looked down at her clean shirt and shook her head "...too much sleep, I guess."

"Simmons recommended you be allowed some bed rest. You had quite the shock."

"I did?"

_Since I can't remember when_

He nodded and she got that nagging feeling she was still missing something. He seemed too calm, too gentle with her. He had never been this aware of her before. Usually he'd talk to her from the safety of his computer yet he'd gotten up, it seemed he too was waiting for something.

_It's been a long, long time_

"Do you only listen to stuff like this?" she asked looking at the gramophone in attempt to break their strangely intimate staring match.

_You'll never know how many dreams_

"I listen to a little bit of everything." He said walking towards her only to reach past and slide his office door closed. "I can turn it off it bothers you." He walked over to it and just as his hand reached to lift the needle she was hit by a wave of dizziness.

"Are you okay?" he asked hand still paused above the record.

She rubbed her forehead but the headache that was building was only increasing with each rub of her hands. "I'm fine. So we caught Quinn then?"

"In a way."

"Is it classified?" she asked happy to see a glimmer of the old Coulson.

He grinned. "You could say that."

Skye looked at him and noticed that his usual immaculate appearance was anything but. His hair looked like he'd run his hand through it more than once. His jacket and tie were missing and his shirtsleeves were rolled up to his surprisingly muscular forearms. **'How did I not noticed that?'**

_I've dreamed about you_

"Is he alive?" She rubbed once again at her temples but there was no stopping the headache that was overtaking her brain. She swayed a little and he gripped her arms to keep her standing.

"Simmons!" he shouted behind her.

_Or just how empty they all seemed without you_

She fully leaned into him and he slipped his arms around her. "Just give me a second. I'll be fine in a bit. You smell good." She said quietly not caring that she was definitely crossing some line.

"Oh God," he muttered.

It was at this utterance that Skye realized that one of the hands that had been holding her up was no longer rubbing her back soothingly. It was now at her nape and holding her still and at an angle perfect to follow the advice from the song still playing around them.

_So kiss me once, then kiss me twice_

So he did, he kissed her once; it was as a peck to the cheek. Then he kissed her twice, one on her forehead and one more on her other cheek, each time tilting her face and lingering longer with each press of his lips to her skin.

_Then kiss me once again._

"I was worried about you." He mumbled and she waited with bated breath as his face came closer to hers. Skye was glad she'd grabbed onto his shoulders when she'd gotten dizzy because the moment his lips made contact with hers was so surreal that she actually felt the room spin.

Skye was pretty sure that she'd be waking up on the floor of her bedroom any moment. Awake, tangled in her sheets and cursing her active imagination for torturing her in such an enjoyable way.

_It's been a long, long time_

He stopped, raised his head and looked past her, leaving her dumbfounded as to why he'd stopped the yummy thing he'd been doing to her neck with his teeth. **'Did I do something wrong?' **

Skye turned to look behind her but whoever had been there was gone. "Who was it? Coulson?" He looked down at her and already she could see that he was starting to regret what he'd just done.

"Please don't leave me." She whispered holding onto his shirt.

"Hang on." he said looking deep into her eyes.

"Why would I need to..."

"Just hang on, okay?" he hugged her.

"I don't feel…so…good. **'Yup the room was definitely spinning.'**

_Ah, kiss me once, then kiss me twice_

_Then kiss me once again_

Skye woke once more completely disoriented only this time she'd at least been placed on some sort of couch. She put her hand out and felt a wall, **'a loveseat?'**

She felt around for a table or lamp but found only more wall. The lights flared to life and she blinked rapidly to focus on the figure sitting by her side. "Where am I?" she looked around and realized that she was in his room, on his bed. "What happened?"

"Is it working?" he asked quietly. He nodded to the cold cloth that had fallen off her forehead and now lay on her chest.

"Yeah, what's going on?"

"You came to my office, fainted and I caught you."

"Oh okay," she sat up and he pulled her to her feet. "Was it all a dream?"

"What?"

"Nevermind. So where is everybody?"

"They're around somewhere." He said not having let go of her hands.

_Since I can't remember when_

"It's still playing? How long is that song or do you have it on repeat? Can you put that thing on repeat?" He was still smiling softly at her, "what?"

"You're babbling. I didn't think you'd babble."

"Dream then, got it."

"If that's what you think," he replied nonchalantly and lifted her left hand onto his right shoulder. His right hand then coasted down to her side while her other hand was caught in his left as he began to sway her back and forth in time to the music.

"Are we dancing?" she asked not that she really need the confirmation as they moved around the room in a slow and steady pace.

"It's been a long long time."

"Since you've danced?"

"No, its what the song says." He replied gripping her waist tighter and pulling her closer to him so that her jean clad legs brushed against his suit pants.

"That wasn't what it said right now." She said just a little breathless from dancing and a lot from the sudden close up view of his chest, afforded by the unbuttoned shirt, and lack of space between them.

"You'll never know how many dreams...I...um," she blushed and he grinned wider. "I dreamed about you. Or just how empty they all seemed without you."

"You've learned it." He replied and she slid her hand from his shoulder to his neck.

"So kiss me once," she said and kissed his cheek. Then she kissed him twice, once on the jaw then again on his other cheek as he'd done to her.

"You're missing a lyric." He replied.

"I am." She answered and kissed him once again, after all she'd been dreaming of it for far too long.

"He still up there?" May asked Ward. The group as a whole looked at the not so silent domain of their leader.

"Hasn't budged." Simmons replied.

"Does he know?" Fitz asked.

"No, we should tell him." Ward answered.

"I'll do it." May volunteered.

Simmons placed her hand on May's arm as the song started again, "we should all do it."

_"Kiss me once, then kiss me twice"_

"Let's go."

_"I've dreamed about you."_

"Sir?"

"..._how empty they all seemed without you."_

"What is it?"

"Skye is out of surgery, the doctors said-"

"_Then kiss me once again"_

"Has she woken up yet?" he interrupted.

"No sir," Ward answered.

"Talking could help her wake sooner." Fitz-Simmons replied behind him, May agreed.

"_Haven't felt like this my dear."_

"Go, all of you."

"Coulson-"

"_Can't remember when."_

"Close the door, May."

Coulson came by the first month. They visited her and brought flowers.

Coulson dropped in four times in the second month, they read to her and told her what they were doing.

Coulson didn't visit the third month though he did play the same song at the same time every night while he paced by her door.

Fitz and Simmons begged, Ward commanded and May threatened but Skye didn't respond. A decision was made and May was volunteered to deliver the verdict.

"You have to talk to her again." May muttered.

He looked into the room but couldn't. He didn't want to, he'd breakdown and cry if he did. **'What could he say to her? I'm sorry you were shot. I'm sorry that you felt you had to do this alone. I'm sorry I wasn't there sooner. I'm sorry I didn't kill Quinn when I had the chance.'**

"I'll do it when it's absolutely necessary."

"It's necessary." May snapped. "Fury cannot hold off the doctors anymore. Too many resources, too many weeks and not enough response, talk to her, it might be your only chance, it will be hers."

He entered and sat beside her bed. She still looked so pale so unlike herself. The time in the hospital had leached her of color and she resembled a doll more than a person. It hadn't taken too much convincing to have Fury move her into a specially built room on the Bus, a room right below where Coulson slept.

She was part of their team, they had to watch over her, that is what he'd told them. In reality Coulson needed her close especially now that he had admitted what she really meant to him.

"I'm supposed to talk to you but I don't have anything to say. I don't know what to say." He took a breath and held her hand. "It's been a long long time…" her eyes fluttered.

"Since I've felt this way…" her hand twitched and he leaned forward. "Skye?"

"I like that song." Her voice was barely audible.

"I know," He rose and leaned his head against hers, glad she was awake and that she'd responded before it'd been too late.

"Play it." She whispered.

"I will," he promised then kissed her hand, her forehead and finally her lips. "It's been a long long, long time."

"Next time," she said sleepily.

"I won't wait."


End file.
